The definition of remission, alas, remains a moving target.  We rheumatologists see it, but we can't quite nail it.  Every time we think the answer is at hand, new information makes us realize we should not be so confident that all is well with our patients' joints. 

While patients and doctors wait for the experts to come down from the mountaintop with all the answers, treatment should aspire to remission, reaching for the absence of joint pain and swelling, the absence of morning stiffness, and the elimination of fatigue.  In other words, the absence of the problems that bring rheumatoid arthritis patients to their doctors in the first place.